topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Tuesday March 19, 2024, 4:57 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Last post Author Topic: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks  (Read 47221 times)

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« on: June 08, 2009, 02:16 PM »
With a bunch of licensed copies flooding DC due to the kind generosity of Christian Ghisler I thought this might be a good time to start a thread where the grizzled Total Commander pros could post all their time-saving, optimizing tips and list out all the must-have plugins to install along-side TC.

I'm sure some of those contest winners have never used TC before and others are like me who have used it a long time, but have not fully tapped this app's power.

What say you, Total Commander experts? Can you throw us who are uninitiated in the eldritch wizardry of Total Commander a bone by wowing us with your prowess?

Darwin

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 6,984
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2009, 03:38 PM »
Excellent idea, innuendo  :Thmbsup: I'm in your camp - that is, I own a licence but have barely scratched the surface of this great file manager.

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2009, 04:21 PM »
Take a look into Help file  :P

But seriously…

There are too many things to write about but I think anyone can agree that clean TC is nothing compared to TC + plugins.

There are almost 500 plugs available with support for hundreds of file formats (i.e. GAUP which unpacks resources from over 300 games) and someone can be lost with such amount of them but what makes it great is the way how information provided by them is used.

By default they are divided into 4 types:
  • wcx - packer plugins for archives support;
  • wdx - content plugins for custom columns and Multi Rename Tool;
  • wfx - filesystem plugins for external devices;
  • wlx - lister plugins for files preview (F3).

Such features are well known since years but there are more places when plugins can be used, so I will try to point few of them:

WCX (content)

They are mostly used for unpacking but few of them exist for handling non-archive formats support: like audio files conversion, images resizing, files encryption or directories listing.

WDX (content)

Average knowledge: Find files tool, Multi Rename tool and files colouring feature;
Hidden stuff: files tooltips, information File overwrite dialogue, Custom filters, thumbnails labels, File attributes dialogue;

WFX (content)

Their use cases vary: external devices support, system Registry editing, CD/DVD burning or… viewing Miranda IM messages. There are many more features available but each WFX plugin is completely different case to be wrote about. Trying to describe them all is just the waste of the time :)

WLX (content)

Average knowledge: files thumbnails;
Hidden stuff: thumbnails in Files overwrite dialogue;



Obviously: that's not all but I don't really think I should try to copy http://en.totalcmd.pl/download or http://www.totalcmd.net/. I would rather leave the place for curious explorers.

BUT one thing I must say: even after few years of using TC, I still find something "new" sometimes.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2009, 04:23 PM by fenixproductions »

tranglos

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,081
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #3 on: June 08, 2009, 05:07 PM »
WDX (content)

Average knowledge: Find files tool, Multi Rename tool and files colouring feature;
Hidden stuff: files tooltips, information File overwrite dialogue, Custom filters, thumbnails labels, File attributes dialogue;

-fenixproductions (June 08, 2009, 04:21 PM)

One great example: the "anytag" plugin. Reads tag data from mp3 and other media files. You can create a custom column layout in TC with columns to display artist, track #, title, duration, etc. This of course lets you sort the file listing by these attributes.

The only missing piece here is that I don't think you can confiogure TC to automatically switch column layout based on the folder contents (or have pre-selected layouts for specific folders). You still need to click Show -> Custom column mode -> pick your mode (or assign a keyboard shortcut).


fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #4 on: June 08, 2009, 05:22 PM »
The only missing piece here is that I don't think you can confiogure TC to automatically switch column layout based on the folder contents (or have pre-selected layouts for specific folders). You still need to click Show -> Custom column mode -> pick your mode (or assign a keyboard shortcut).

It can be done using AHK or TwinKey. Although second solution seems to be slow (at least for me).

BTW For columns view switch I assigned Ctrl+E to cm_SrcCustomViewMenu. It is quicker this way.

tranglos

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,081
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #5 on: June 08, 2009, 05:44 PM »
A few of my favorite keyboard commands:

Ctrl+B: show "flat view" of subfolders. Simple, but you don't want to miss it.

Alt+Shift+Enter: display size of all directories in the current listing. Or press Space on a folder to show size for just that folder.

Lots and lots of intuitive keyboard assignments. It's easy to see the big F8 Delete button at the bottom, but you can delete also by pressing Del. Backspace navigates to parent folder. Insert selects. Insert is a non-repeating key, so Shift+up/down arrows works just as well, or just press Ctrl+A to select all. But by far the quickest way to select all files, if none are currently selected, is the NumPad asterisk ("invert selection").

Shift+F1 to quickly change the view or custom column layout, without going through the main menu.

Shift+F4 to create a new empty file and open it in the editor assigned to the F4 key in TC.

F2 (or Shift+F6) to rename current file. If multiple files are selected, you get a dialog box where you can e.g. quickly change the extension of all selected files.

F5 of course copies a file to the opposite pane, but Shift+F5 does an "in place" copy (in the same folder, not to the other pane).

Tip: Learn the keyboard shortcuts for changing sort order: Ctrl+F4 sorts by file extension, Ctrl+F5 sorts by file size, etc. It's much quicker than clicking the columns.

Tip: If you have added your own commands to the Start menu (the TC Start menu, which predates the Windows Start button by 10 years or so ;) assign keyboard shortcuts to the "cm_UserMenuX" commands to activate the respective Start menu items. For example, cm_UserMenu1 activates the topmost command in the Start menu, cm_UserMenu2 activates the second command from the top, etc. I use this to quickly open files using different editors: Ctrl+1 opens the selected file in EmEditor, Ctr+2 opens it in EditPad Pro, Ctrl+3 in HippoEdit, and so on.

Ctrl+D opens a context menu that you can fill with custom commands. It's very fast, so I use it to switch quickly to folders I often use. Use the ampersand character to mark hotkeys in the menu, so that you can press Ctrl+D, M for example, to navigate to "My Documents", etc. I probably use it a hundred times a day. You can place any commands you want in that menu (Ctrl+D, select "Configure"), but this menu is specifically designed for folder switching: press Ctrl+D, then click "Add current dir".

Use the lister (F3). It's the simplest but the most efficient file viewer I've ever seen. With plugins, it can display formatted content of many types of files (there's even a plugin for .torrent files), but by itself it just displays the raw file contents. I couldn't live without it. If you just need to read a file, it's the fastest and most convenient way. Hard to believe, but when you install a fresh copy of Windows, there is no file viewer available at all. You can open text files in Notepad, but if you'd like to see what an .exe file really looks like inside, you're out of luck. The TC lister is fast, has great search with regexp support, and understands Unicode. Check the Options menu to configure the viewer, and press keys 1 through 7 to cycle between various formats and encodings.

Install IrfanView (even if you don't normally use it), and in the lister's configuration check "Use IrfanView to load graphics". This, again, is the fastest way to view any media format that IrfanView supports (including videos and sounds).

Select a file and press Ctrl+Q for quick view in the opposite pane. (But install IrfanView first.) Isn't it simpler than waiting for ACDSee to open and navigating the crowded interface?

Select a zip file and press Ctrl+Q. If the zip contains a file named "readme" (or a few other common names), it will be displayed without you having to open the zip file and navigating inside it.

Plugins are usually distributed as zip files, too. Press Enter on a plugin file, and TC will ask if you want to install the plugin. (Only the first time though, once per session.)

Tip: A lot of zip files (and other archive files) use non-standard extensions. Pressing Enter will open the file in associated application - but what if you just want to look inside the archive? Press Ctrl+Page Down. Do it for example on a .docx file (created in Word 2007), or on a .jar file in Firefox's "Chrome" folder, for example. It also works with some (not all) installers, and with all executable archives. Very useful if you suspect an executable might be a trojan, but then again it might be a harmless zip file - instead of hitting Enter to run the executable, press Ctrl+PageDown and just view what's inside. Experiment with it often, and you'll find all manner of interesting files inside files. (Now try doing that in Windows Explorer!)

Tip: Remember that you can save searches that you frequenrly perform (The Load/Save tab in the Find Files dialog box.) And when you search for files, remember that you can press Alt+L ("Feed to listbox") to show search results in one of the two panes in TC. You can also use the file viewer (F3) directly from the list of results in the Find Files dialog.

Want to find files with more than one extension? Separate extensions with spaces: *.doc *.txt.

Remember also that you can search for files (and for text in files) inside any archive format TC understands.

And that's the basic fun stuff :)

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2009, 05:50 PM »
Now, if only someone ported half of TC's features to linux.
Linux has 10^6 half-assed dual pane filemanagers. It seems to be the favorite pet project. None of them finished, or polished to a point where you can call them a TC replacement.

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #7 on: June 08, 2009, 06:12 PM »
2tranglos
Just few comments to your post :)

F5 of course copies a file to the opposite pane, but Shift+F5 does an "in place" copy (in the same folder, not to the other pane).
-tranglos

There is also nice command for shortcuts files (LNK) creation (additionally assigned to Ctrl+Shift+F5 here).

If you just need to read a file, it's the fastest and most convenient way.
-tranglos

For me it's not the quickest way due to many WLX plugins installed. I prefer to use Shift+F3 for very quick preview (lister without plugins) instead.

Install IrfanView (even if you don't normally use it), and in the lister's configuration check "Use IrfanView to load graphics". This, again, is the fastest way to view any media format that IrfanView supports (including videos and sounds).
-tranglos

I don't think it's 100% true. The fastest way is to use Imagine plugin first and set additional types for Irfan (via IViewAdditionalTypes parameter) next. If someone prefers XnView, he/she can use it too.

Select a zip file and press Ctrl+Q. If the zip contains a file named "readme" (or a few other common names), it will be displayed without you having to open the zip file and navigating inside it.
-tranglos

… but you can view archives properties there if you have nice WLX plugin (ArchView, ArcView) installed.

Tip: Remember that you can save searches that you frequenrly perform (The Load/Save tab in the Find Files dialog box.) And when you search for files, remember that you can press Alt+L ("Feed to listbox") to show search results in one of the two panes in TC. You can also use the file viewer (F3) directly from the list of results in the Find Files dialog.
-tranglos

Plus the possibility to save searches templates for further use in: files tooltips, Overwrite dialogue info, Custom filter and files colouring.

2urlwolf
I had missed that too until I discovered that TC under Wine is much better (and quicker) than any other native Linux filemanager. Well… being honest… MC is quicker but less attractive ;)

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #8 on: June 08, 2009, 06:17 PM »
One more important thing: it is known that TC 7.50 introduces quick filter feature but not so many people are aware that there is the possibility to use additional DLL file for better filtering (Google like, similarity, regexp) from here:
http://en.totalcmd.p...gle_Like_Quicksearch

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #9 on: June 09, 2009, 06:13 AM »
btw TC 7.5 beta 4 lists files a lot slower. There's about .5 sec delay that wasn't there before. Anyone experiencing this? I don't remember having installed any new related plugin.

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #10 on: June 09, 2009, 06:14 AM »
one other thing that I like is that on windows most file extensions get a difrerent color and icon. Even if I ran TC under wine, I wouldn't get that, would I? and double-clicking would not launch the correct application right? I haven't tried (linux VM blew up!)

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #11 on: June 09, 2009, 03:57 PM »
2urlwolf
I don't really know how does new beta work on Wine because I don't use Linux at all. Last time I checked I had no problems with TC.

I think that 7.5 should work better than 7.04a. Wine compatibility was discussed many times on private beta board and Ghisler made few changes for Linux only. I know that he even pulled back one feature for Windows because it was breaking Wine completely :)

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #12 on: June 10, 2009, 02:53 PM »
Take a look into Help file  :P
-fenixproductions

Well, yeah...but I was looking for tips like "be sure to set this setting to this value and that setting to that value to really boost your productivity and/or appearance."

There are too many things to write about...

Agreed...but when I was starting this thread I was hoping for people to pick what they thought was the best of the best to write about...not to write about everything they knew.

Obviously: that's not all but I don't really think I should try to copy http://en.totalcmd.pl/download or http://www.totalcmd.net/. I would rather leave the place for curious explorers.

I'm not against exploring, but often you will run into three or four different plugins that offer the same or similar functionality. A heads-up as to which one is the best (and usually there is one that stands head & shoulders above the rest) would be great without us having to duplicate a veteran's work by having to try them all out to see which one is best would also be a great contribution to this thread.

But I'm enjoying the thread...Keep things coming. I'm sure Darwin is learning as much as I am.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 08:38 PM by Innuendo »

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #13 on: June 10, 2009, 02:56 PM »
btw TC 7.5 beta 4 lists files a lot slower. There's about .5 sec delay that wasn't there before. Anyone experiencing this? I don't remember having installed any new related plugin.
-urlwolf

Indeed the 7.5 betas do seem to be listing files slower than 7.04a did. I don't know why that is. 7.5 seems to be slower at connecting to network shares as well.

tranglos

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,081
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #14 on: June 10, 2009, 02:59 PM »
Agreed...but when I was starting this thread I was hoping for people to pick what they thought was the best of the best to write about...not to write about everything they knew.

I hope I didn't try to do that :)

Anyway, one other tip. The TC main menu is fully configurable - you can build it from scratch. The default menu does not contain all the available commands. Somewhere in the depths of the various TC enhancement and plugin sites, there is a downloadable complete menu definition with (supposedly) all TC commands. I don't have a link handy, but you should be able to find it easily (I think it was called "extended menu"). By switching to that menu you can easily browse and try out a number of features that may not be readily apparent in the default configuration.

Of course, with the new 7.50 release, there are probably new commands as well, but these should be documented in the release history.

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #15 on: June 10, 2009, 04:42 PM »
2Innuendo

Please believe me, I did not try to write about anything. I wrote about what I think is the best.

I agree that exploring plugins might look like Sisyphus work (there are about 500 of them available) but without any knowledge what would you like to achieve it is hard to tell you anything. I can only point out some interesting features or answer specific questions. There are too many features to describe them all.

If you want to I can think about small guide in the form of listing of the plugins I use. You could treat it as starting point.

On the other hand, you might consider to take a look on existing TC packages like Total Commander Power Pack or Total Commander Ultima Prime. Those two are "Ghisler accepted" and they show what can be done in TC. They also offer additional tools and nice plugins sets for daily usage. BUT please be aware that their purposes differ: TCPP is meant as quick TC guide while TCUP is complete package to be installed after system re-installation (install it and you need nothing more).

urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #16 on: June 10, 2009, 07:00 PM »
@fenix:
Sorry, I'm not sure I asked you before... is TC under wine convenient? do you get icons? double-click opens the right tool? all unix paths work fine (e.g., what happens if I open dev/null?
Do plugins work?

I'd be interested in your list of plugins, definitely. I use a slimmed down version of TC UP.

Thanks!

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #17 on: June 10, 2009, 08:25 PM »
2urlwolf
I think I've answered to your question here ;)

I can add that I had no problems with plugins I was using back then.

Below you will find my list but it's more terrifying than my first post IMHO.
"My list"

RU means rarely used (in most of the cases it is just the remain from the past);

WCX (packer)
  • 7zip - 7zip archives handling;
  • aes - encryption plugin (used a lot during private beta tests);
  • audioconverter - audio files conversion (RU);
  • AviWcx - treats AVI files like archives (RU)
  • blat - sends files as emails attachments (RU);
  • bzip2dll - bzip archives handling;
  • CatalogMaker - files lists creation;
  • CHMDir - useful for working with CHM files;
  • cpio - Linux stuff (RU);
  • deb - Linux stuff (RU);
  • DiskDirExtended - files lists creation;
  • gaup_pro - unpacks files from over 300 games;
  • GifWcx - working nicely with animated GIFs;
  • ICLRead - quick icon libraries creation;
  • ico - allows to unpack custom sized icons from ICO files;
  • Imagine - simple images operations (resizing, etc.);
  • img.wcx - IMG files support (RU);
  • iso - working with CD/DVD images;
  • MhtUnPack - allows me to extract files from webpages saved from Opera;
  • msi-plus - working with MSI files;
  • multiarc - adds support for formats not handled by other plugins;
  • pack - Quake 3 and his offspring :)
  • ResExtract - useful for working with executable files resources;
  • rpm - Linux stuff (RU);
  • TotalSQX - SQX format support;
  • wcx_mdb - working with Access files (RU);
  • WdxInfoPacker - generates nice files reports;

WDX (content)
  • 7zipInfo - 7zip archives details;
  • Age - shows days names (usually I don't care about exact date);
  • anytag - audio files properties;
  • Attributes - additional files attributes (RU);
  • AudioInfo - audio files properties;
  • cda_file_info - CDaudio support (RU);
  • CDocProp - Office files info;
  • comments - shows if file is mentioned in descript.ion (my own plug);
  • cputil - recent plugin by Ghisler for working with Unicode named files (I hope it will support Unicode characters replacement in the future);
  • DirSizeCalc - shows folders sizes;
  • dummy - shows hardcoded characters (used to bypass SuperWDX limitations);
  • EmptyWDX - checks if dir is empty or contains files matching user defined phrase (my recent child with wildcards support);
  • ExeFormat - executable files info;
  • exeinfo - executable files info;
  • FileDesc - shows additional files descriptions and allows to combine multiple plugins info in one field; it can even use WhereIsIt plugins;
  • FileX - additional files info like file type, MIME or associated application;
  • HTML - HTML files properties;
  • IconLibrary - I am checking icons existence in executables with that one;
  • Images - image files properties;
  • jpg-comment - image files properties;
  • media - audio and video files info;
  • MIDlet - JAVA files info;
  • Office2007 - Office 2007 files info (my own child which handles all Xes);
  • OOInfo - OpenOffice documents info;
  • Opera_Cache - checking my browsers cache is a lot easier than before;
  • rarcolumns - RAR archives info;
  • reginfo - first plugin I ever wrote which shows MIME type (RU);
  • SecInfo - files security related details;
  • ShellDetails - takes files data from Explorer;
  • ShellLinkProperties - all about shortcuts;
  • sla_wdx - Scribus documents info (my own child but RU);
  • SUPER_WDX - combined files info;
  • SVGwdx - SVG files info (I am trying to enjoy my life: my kid again);
  • TextLine - shows text files lines (useful for visual search);
  • TextSearch - plugin for searching text in many documents formats (uses external conversion tools);
  • trid - files recognition (used TrID databases);
  • wdx_eml - saved emails info;
  • WDXcontains - checks if dir contains specified file (supports regexp but RU due to EmptyWDX);
  • WDXTagLib - audio files info;
  • xPDFSearch - PDF files info (also useful for searching through PDFs);

WFX (filesystem)
  • AceHelper - processes info (RU);
  • ADO_DS - nice on-line databases browsing (RU);
  • badcopy - recovering files from damaged CD/DVD (RU);
  • CoRegistry - nice for searching in Registry;
  • cpl - Windows Control Panel in TC (RU);
  • DBLister - one more databases plugin;
  • decClipboardFS - clipboard operations (RU due to Screenshot Captor)
  • DevMan - system devices info (RU);
  • efsplugin - Brew based phones support;
  • envvar - easy editing of system variables;
  • eventnt - System Log viewer;
  • ex2fs - Linux stuff once again (RU);
  • fr - FilesRedirector plugin which creates virtual file system (RU);
  • ftpmon - nice FTP servers monitoring (RU);
  • MirandaFS - thanks to this guy I can still brows my 4 years old Miranda IM archive (priceless);
  • mp3cmd - MP3 database (no need for MediaMonkey);
  • MS_SQL - and databases once again (RU);
  • NetworkAlt - better LAN support (RU);
  • ntfsfs - NTFS handling for Win9x; in newer Windows versions it helps to detect hidden resources on my HDD (even shows MFT file!);
  • OperaFS - Opera notes and bookmarks browsing;
  • PROCFS - processes info;
  • registry - one more Registry editor (will be RU when CoRegistry leave alpha stage);
  • Ripper - ripping CDaudios;
  • services - usefull for quick system services switching;
  • sftpplug - SecureFTP support;
  • StartupGuard - shows system start-up info (RU due to Autoruns);
  • tcburner - nice CD/DVD burning (RU);
  • TConsole - embeds CMD into TC window;
  • TempPanel - virtual filesystem (RU);
  • TotalConsole - same as TConsole (why do I have both?);
  • TStart - Windows Start menu browsing (I know, it's overkill);
  • UnInstTC - quicker software uninstallation;
  • versions - web pages monitor;
  • VirtualDisk - mounts disk images;
  • wipe - secure files deleting;
  • wmdmplug - Windows Media Devices support (my friend has Zen player);

WLX (lister)
  • anytag - audio files info;
  • cbxthumbs - shows thumbnails for comics files (CBR, CBZ);
  • DBLister - few database files support (RU);
  • decThumbsDBViewer3 - preview of thumbs.db files (RU); also supports other thumbs databases (i.e. from ACDSee);
  • dvi - DVI files preview;
  • excellence - Excel worksheets preview;
  • Font - fonts files preview;
  • gswlx - PDF files preview;
  • ICLView - icon libraries preview (this plugin is excellent example of "what is missing in image viewers");
  • ieview - allows to preview files using Internet Explorer controls (I am using it for MHT and CHM);
  • Imagine - the bestest for images handling :)
  • IniEd - nice INI files editing;
  • LinkInfo - shows LNK shortcuts info;
  • mplayer4tc - embeds mplayer.hu in lister (RU because it worked perfectly in the past but recent mplayer updated broke something);
  • nfoview - NFO files preview;
  • NoDirQuickView - dummy plugin to speed TC a little bit (if you're using QuickView TC slows down when you select some folder because it counts its size and this plugin stops that);
  • office - Office documents preview;
  • Office2007 - Office 2007 documents preview (my own buggy child);
  • OOView - OpenOffice files preview;
  • PDNplugin - I wrote this one for viewing Paint.NET files thumbnails on computers without this software (RU because I have PN on my PC and don't use other machines);
  • Playlist - playlists files info;
  • scrlist - allows to preview screensavers;
  • SQLLite - SQ-Lite databases preview;
  • SVGwlx_vs - SVG files thumbnails (yes! I did it again!);
  • swfll - SWF files support;
  • SynPlus - excellent text viewer with code highlighting;
  • tcCld - adds calendar to TC (RU);
  • Thumbs - additional files thumbnails;
  • Torrent - little thief helper;
  • wlx_csv - shows CSV files in nice tables;
  • wlx_eml - saved emails preview;
  • wszview - winamp skins preview (RU - wow! I still have this one?);
  • xBaseViewFree - database files support (RU);


urlwolf

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,837
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #18 on: June 11, 2009, 08:33 AM »
fantastic list. Thanks!
And great to hear that 7.5 will work well under linux.

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #19 on: June 11, 2009, 09:15 AM »
tranglos, I enjoyed your post. It was very informative as I didn't know a lot of that stuff & what made it better was fenixproductions came along and showed how you could do things a little more efficiently with some of the tasks you demonstrated.

fenixproductions, that was an awesome list and you better believe I'm going to be mimicking a lot of your plugin setup. My main problem has always been finding three or four plugins that do the same thing (read Office files, read PDFs, etc.). I think I can be pretty sure you have the best of each type in your setup.

urlwolf, Total Commander just as this amazingness about it that for whatever reason instills envy from people who use non-Windows machines. Not only does Christian get tons of requests from *nix users, but from time to time there are Mac users clamoring for it as well.

I've heard of people having success with Wine and CrossOVer. That puts extra layers of trust between you and your data, though. First you have to trust that Total Commander is going to interact well with an OS that it was not designed to run under and you also have to trust that the Wine/CrossOver people got everything right that TC needs to operate properly. In that equation I trust Christian completely. Those other factors? Not so completely. I'd definitely do some tests on some non-important data before trusting my entire system to such a setup.

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #20 on: June 11, 2009, 03:51 PM »
Here's a Total Commander tip that I just learned the other day.

If you right click on the "F8  Delete" button on the button bar at the bottom of the TC window it brings up the Recycle Bin context menu!

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #21 on: June 11, 2009, 04:19 PM »
2Innuendo
There are few more tricks with functions buttons bar. Just try to hold Clrl, Alt or shift while clicking or dropping files onto it ((i.e. Ctrl +F5 will create LNK shortcut to file).

Personally I switched this bar off few years ago ;)

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #22 on: June 12, 2009, 08:56 AM »
Personally I switched this bar off few years ago ;)
-fenixproductions

So did I...which probably explains why I just learned that trick. I didn't know there was more functionality than meets the eye when it came to this bar, but....I should have known better. Christian always has a trick up his sleeve.

fenixproductions

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • Posts: 1,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #23 on: June 14, 2009, 09:18 AM »
Small advertisement :)

If someone is looking for "better" TC help file I recommend this one:
http://marmouset.ats...com/helptc/index.htm

Looks like standard one at first but it has more things explained. Long time user Clo is doing very good work.

Innuendo

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 2,266
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Total Commander: Tips, Tricks, and Tweaks
« Reply #24 on: June 14, 2009, 12:23 PM »
Fenix, I have downloaded that file a while back and Clo has done a very good job of explaining things more at length than the default help file. Everyone should read this one through at least once.